Jack MacGowan, Chairperson, NFTE Board
Commercial Director,DAA

Jack MacGowan is Commercial Director of the Dublin Airport Authority (DAA) and has specific responsibility for DAA’s commercial operations including Retail, Property, Car Parks and Marketing. He is a board member of various DAA subsidiaries including Aer Rianta International (ARI) and several property joint ventures such as Cork Business Park (Brooklyn).

He was previously with Tesco Plc as Head of Marketing for Tesco Ireland and more recently as Stores and Non-Food Marketing Director in the UK. Prior to Tesco, Jack worked with Shell International and McKinsey & Company in London and with Diageo in various senior marketing and general management positions in the UK, USA, Russia and Greece.

Jack holds Engineering Degrees from Trinity College Dublin and Wolfson College, Cambridge and an MBA from the Wharton School of Business. In addition to NFTE Ireland, Jack is active in other not-for-profit organizations and was a member of the Board of the Princes Youth Business Trust (South London) for several years.

Liavan Mallin, Founder, NFTE Ireland, Entrepreneur

Liavan Mallin is a highly accomplished business entrepreneur, having founded successful companies in the telecommunications, retail, IT and real estate sectors, based both in the United States and in Ireland.  She is also a committed philanthropist and gifted athlete, serving on several not-for profit Boards, and holding the women’s world record for longest distance in hang gliding.  

In recognition of her many accomplishments, Liavan was named 1995 Businesswoman of The Year by Veuve Cliquot, and in 2000 was recognized as a Global Leader of Tomorrow by the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
She was been appointed to the Board of Trustees & the Governing Board at Dublin City University, where she initiated and co-funds the Mallin-DCU Enterprise Award to encourage entrepreneurship within the post graduate & student body.  

Liavan was also a member of the organizing board for the Special Olympics World games, the largest sporting event in the world in 2003, which took place in Ireland.  In 2003, she was appointed to the Enterprise Strategy review group, which was established by the Tanaiste, to set out a new Enterprise strategy, which would result in economic growth in Ireland over the next decade.


Liavan has achieved successes in the sporting field as well, having set a women’s world distance to goal hang gliding record in 1989. She flew 132 miles at heights in excess of 18,000 ft to achieve this record, which took 7 and half hours to complete. For this, she was recorded in the Guinness book of records. Liavan founded NFTE Ireland in 2005 and is still an active board member.